Hi all - new to the forums. I have been lurking around and found information on here very helpful as I was in the process of buying a F type. I ended up with a certified pre-owned 2017 Black convertible f type R.

Anyways - 2 months in and I started getting the low battery warning a few days ago. I was planning on going for a nice long drive this weekend so I figured it was just because the car was sitting in the garage for a few days. Long story short - the car is completely dead. It will not even unlock. After doing some search, it seems like the only way to get in is the emergency key (metal key) inside the key fob. I opened both of my key fobs and none of them had the metal key. I called the dealer and they had me order the metal key which cost $100 bucks (no big deal) but could take a week or even a month to come since it will be arriving from the UK. They will call me tomorrow to let me know if there is another way to get into the car. I got a locksmith to come over through Jaguar road side assistance and he wasn't willing to use the tool that prys open the window and unlocks the car as it would cause damage. I agreed with him. I am out of ideas. I have searched online for this particular issue and have not found an alternative solution. Anyone deal with this? Any thoughts or ideas? Ultimately I will have to try and figure out what is draining the battery. I know there has been known issues with battery in these cars. I would appreciate any insight on this any of you may have.

Thanks in advance!

 

Have you had the car anywhere where the OBD port has been used? There's a lot of evidence that some devices will leave the car in a draining state when the OBD port is used.

As for getting in the car with a flat battery, I think without a key you're pretty well stuck unless you can get access to a plus and negative point from underneath to connect a jump unit - the underhood points are right at the top, unfortunately

 

Think you’ll have to be patient - can’t imagine you could snake something past the window to pull the hood release without damaging something. Maybe the dealer can ask to expedite the order?

 

If the car was certified, I’d certainly argue against paying for the missing keys. If I were really impatient, I might consider if the drivers-side window can be broken without causing other damage, and let them pay for replacing it.

 

I haven’t used the OBD port at all. It’s truly a mystery regarding the battery draining completely in a few days time.

 

i am trying to see if they can expedite the metal key order. I am not super impatient so I will wait it out. The car was bought from a private party and I checked with the previous owner who was clueless to the existence of the metal key. I am hoping the dealer has an alternative way to get into the car. 🤞🏽

 

+1, that is something that should have been checked by the certifying dealer, IMO.

 

After reading this thread I immediately checked both my key fobs to make sure the back up keys were there. How could the previous owner have lost both back up keys?

 

Batteries and related systems are a weak link for this otherwise wonderful car (differentials too in some but not me so far). In my previous battery f type adventures I thought I saw a way of opening the hood from the outside. It seemed to be a bit of a pain so I used the key from the fob. However, I did a quick look on the internet today and can't find that again procedure again so maybe I was hallucinating.

The key (no pun intended) to your problem is getting the hood open. What I found is that after getting the hood open I put on a jump starter box the the electrodes in the hood area (battery in trunk). This didn't delivery enough juice to start the engine. A tow truck driver told me that this set up often doesn't work well. However, it will give you enough power to open the trunk. Then I connected real jumper cables to the battery in the trunk to a running car. At first, the connection did not have enough power to start Jag. After several minutes of waiting, the Jag eventually started. I assume the Jag battery gained enough power not to syphon off electricity from the other car to allow it to start. An extended run after starting recharged the battery in the Jag.

Unless you can find a way of getting the hood open from the outside, I think you will have to wait for a spare key or another way of opening the doors. Good luck.

 

[QUOTE=EdG;2286376]Batteries and related systems are a weak link for this otherwise wonderful car ...[\quote]

The battery isn't a weak link, it's a standard AGM battery. The problem is that the Jag, like many modern cars, has a lot of electrical systems that need power. The only thing I'm aware of that depletes the Jag's battery needlessly is the OBD connectivity issue, some folks on here leave their cars undriven for several weeks at a time (me included) and don't have battery issues.

Why not just connect the running car to the underhood terminals (not while it's running, observe the correct connecting sequence)? That's what they're there for.

 

Honestly, I asked myself this question and then ultimately reached out to the previous owner. Overall, he has been a great guy through the whole process. Car is clean and barely used as it only had $12k miles. He never had to use the metal key and had no idea that it even existed in the key fob. I am a little confused as to how they don't exist. The dealer (as you would imagine) has no clue either.

 

I will spend some time researching if I can get the hood open from the outside. Still waiting on the dealer to get back to me on an alternative method of getting into the car. I am hoping Jaguar UK doesn't take weeks to make this key. I am just surprised that I am the first person to deal with this issue. Upon my research, I found a lot of people ended up breaking and losing their metal emergency keys because they are flimsy. We the known battery issues, I would think there is a population of people that my have run into this. Although, I am glad that none of you have!

 

[QUOTE=scm;2286386]I never had battery issues when the car sat, then one day I did. It wasn't the battery needing replaced, and it wasn't the OBD port. A drain started in the passenger door handle. So a door handle later and a new battery I didn't need yet and all is good.

 

Welcome to the forum, where are you in VA?

 

Thank you! I am in the Northern VA area. I see that you are in VA beach.

 

I once had a random drain, too. First I knew about it was when InControl called to say the car had told them its battery was flat. I got a technician out to jump start the car (I used the key to get the bonnet open) and after a nice drive, and an overnight charge the car has behaved flawlessly (insofar as electricals are concerned!) ever since. Clearly the draining module was reset by the flat battery and has never glitched again. Codes were no help as every module reported its absence of electrons ...

 

hopefully you get your blade key soon

 

[QUOTE=scm;2286386]I said battery and other related systems. Many complaints on this forum are battery related. More battery complaints than any other car forum I've been on (but I don't hang out of Aston Martin forums which I have heard also have battery issues). All other cars now have complicated and large electric systems but don't seem to have similar battery issues. I don't know why that is, it is just an observation. My battery first died when the car was 3.5 years old (not sure if original or not, I had it for over 1 year). The dealer replaced under warranty less than a year later so I don't know if that was just a bad battery or if something about the electrical system damaged it. Members of this forum have recommended connecting batteries trickle chargers every time you park it even for a few days. I thought that was crazy at first but I started doing it as I don't want to deal with a dead battery again. I store my convertible for the winter so I already had the connections.

I have found after driving the car for 3 hours, I plug in the trickle charge and it takes about 24 hours for the trickle charge to fully recharge the battery. I would have thought that the driving for 3 hours would have (near) full charge on battery but that is apparently not the case. However, I do get over 14 V when car is running compared to 12.5 V when not running and it did charge my dead battery. I am doing some testing now to see how much voltage drop after driving and sitting for a while trying to figure out if I get a consistent voltage drain in specific situations. Car is going out of warranty next spring so trying to sort it out now if I can. The dealer updated my gateway monitor when replacing my battery a few weeks ago so that might fix something.

I connect to the battery for jumps because that is where the voltage is supposed to come from. I assume (but could be wrong) that the terminals up front need to go to the truck area since that is where battery and electronic systems are based before going back up the then engine compartment to start the engine. I am trying to reduce voltage drop by connecting to the battery.

 

Hi all - update from dealer: They want the car towed to the dealership and said that they can possibly pry open the window and unlock the car. The locksmith that looked at the car in my garage told me he was concerned that the window may break due to the way the convertible is designed and slides into the convertible top. The dealer is not concerned and I would generally trust the dealer. I wanted to see if anyone had any thoughts on this. I suppose if they break the glass, they will fix it so maybe a moot point...

 

Thanks, me too!